1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an articulated cable protection and guide apparatus for protecting and guiding flexible cables and hoses. The cables and hoses may be electric cables, optical fiber cables and fluid supplying hoses (referred to hereinafter as a cable or cables). The cables are used for machine tools, electronic devices, industrial robots, transportation machines and others to feed power, fluid, air and other things to those moving machines or to a moving part of the machines.
2. Related Art
If cables are to be connected to a mobile body of a machine tool, a civil engineering machine, and/or a conveying apparatus without protection in an exposed state, the cables may be damaged by causing intolerable torsion or tension when they are moved. In those circumstances, a cable protection and guide apparatus is used to support and guide the cables.
Prior art cable protection and guide apparatuses are known in which conductors, conduits for conveying gas, and supporting members include continuous material strips. The continuous material strips include a series of non-interlocked action-limited solid bodies sealed within a plurality of channels and disposed therein in parallel as disclosed in Japanese Patent No. 4157096 (Claims, Paragraphs [0031] through [0034], FIG. 21) for example.